Among scientists, age brings atheism. Among general population, youths are less religious...

[BolivarianHero]

I was reading up on the political opinions of scientists and notice that younger scientists were more likely to believe in a deity than their older peers<1>.

Conversely, among the general public, the young are less likely to be religious than the old<2>.

Can somebody shed like on this phenomenon? I suspect it stems from the fact that the life of the average scientists travels a very different intellectual and philosophical trajectory than the life of the average person. But is that all there is to it?

1. http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1549 ... Near bottom of article.
2. http://www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org/reports/NONES_08.pdf Near the beginning.

I understand that the data is aggregated differently, but it doesn't take away from this odd relationship.

[Warpy]

1. That is bizarre, but my own parents, both engineers

were practicing Catholics when I was growing up but both died unbelievers.

I really have no idea why it happened because that was a sore subject with them since I'd rejected the church while I was still in grammar school.

However, it would seem to prove your post.

[Wilms]

2. Perhaps it's due to perception.

Scientists and the like may well have a tough time with religious narratives.

But the religious might tell you, "God is everywhere". A scientist sees that same phenomenon...just differently.

:shrug:

[bighughdiehl]

3. Hmmm...

Just much more educated in general than the average person(Phd or masters vs. high school to bachelors)? An inborn temperament more prone to deep thought?
I guess it might also be interesting to compare scientists vs. other super-educated people.
Science vs. Philosophy or English history? Also, hard science vs. social science.
Anyone got sources to this effect?

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. When going into science a young person is a seeker -

and a seeker is always looking for a belief to hold on to. By its nature, however, with the scientific method, if the scienific believer seeks validation of religious beliefs that do not exist they believe the evidence of their own eyes and turn to atheism, keeping their seeking confined to scientific enquiry.

Many non-science based non-believers are not really atheists so much as reactionary anti-religionists. They turn against belief not because they've disproved it in their own minds but because some aspect of prior theism failed them - such as my ex, who decided she hated god after her daughter was raped. I can understand the impulse, but frankly, how do you hate something you don't believe exists?

At the same time, young non-believers are much more susceptible to being 'converted' later in life because their non-belief is (for the most part) emotionally based, not rationally based. Scientists do not have deathbed conversions.

I believe you are right that it is largely from being on different intellectual trajectories.

[lazarus]

5. You nailed it

I award you 1 (one) internet.

[shireen]

6. interesting analysis,

i think there's also a neurological component to it.
See http://health.howstuffworks.com/brain-religion.htm

[rd_kent]

9. I agree with you except on one part.

they turn against belief not because they've disproved it in their own minds but because some aspect of prior theism failed them

While I understand your sentiment, I think you have it back wards. Most turn away from belief not because they are unable to dis-prove the existence of a god, but because they cannot find any evidence that supports that a god exists in the first place.
Your anecdote about your ex may be an exception, but I suspect that the rape was just the last straw on the camels back. I am very sorry to hear about this tragic story. you and your ex and her daughter have my sincere condolences.

[Silent3]

10. I've encountered both situations, and I have no idea which is more common...

...people who start out with religious or spiritual faith but turn away from it because evidence doesn't support that faith, or people who turn away from faith for more emotional reasons.

For me it was the former. I started out being raised Catholic, but my mother seemed to just go along for the ride when we went to church, and my father was a fairly liberal Catholic who liked to read obscure books on theology. The God I believed in started out as a pretty abstract entity and sort of faded away over time, lost in too much abstraction to mean much of anything any more. I don't recall any particular moment of transition away from belief in God. The only transition I do remember is mostly a semantic one, when I became comfortable with the idea of calling myself an atheist rather than an agnostic.

[rd_kent]

11. I think it is still the same reason...lack of a reason to beleive....

When a person looks at religion RATIONALLY, it just does not make sense. I think that incidents where a tragedy turns someone away is just MORE reason not to believe..

[ZombieHorde]

7. Because younger scientists like to fuck with pollsters? nt

[DeSwiss]

8. A couple of variables come to mind.....

...but the most likely one is that the youth of today have much greater access to contravening opinions about religious belief than older people would have had growing up 20, 30, or 40 years ago. Unlike Richard Dawkins (et. al.) who is my contemporary, our atheists back then (e.g. - Bertrand Russell) were barely allowed to be made known to us. Their names weren't spoken in polite religious company, just like the words divorce and cancer weren't mentioned out loud either. Also, polite and staid religiosity was intertwined into society much more seamlessly, while at the same time religion's rougher edges weren't universally acceptable either as much as they are now (e.g. - holy-rollers & fundamentalism).

I just recently reached my late-50s, and much of what I gained in knowledge that ultimately convinced me beyond the shadow of any doubt that religion was a huge hoax, took almost 40+ to accumulate the old-fashioned way with privately owned books, libraries, snail-mail pamphlets, and the three-network plus the public teevee combination (most of which were of almost no use). But if I'd had the resources of the internets available to me 30-35 years ago, it would not have taken so long for me to clear the air. Whole libraries of information that challenge and directly contradict religious BS are available to almost anyone today, which were not available to me in my youth.

Today a preacher can say something in church in the morning and be determine by his youthful parishioner to be a fraud before lunch by Googling what he said. So I am not surprised at your finding. And it is also the reason I take heart at the minor setbacks that non-believers experience from time to time now. Because I realize that for religion, the game is well and truly up. People have reached a tipping-point of knowledge and understanding that undermines superstition in a way that religion cannot overcome as it once did. It still won't be easy, but now I know that it's possible.

- And that's enough.....

[gcomeau]

12. It's rather difficult...

...to spend your career immersed in an environment where the importance of falsifiable hypotheses and the supremacy of evidence in drawing conclusions is demonstrated on a daily basis and still cling to unfalsifiable, unverified supernatural beliefs.

It requires you to compartmentalize your brain in a manner sufficient to ward off the crippling cognitive dissonance so that your rational mind doesn't start telling the part that believes in God "Yeah... umm, why exactly?" which will inevitably lead to the response "No good reason at all actually... I just wanna".

It's not easy to do. I know a few people who have done it but generally if you're dealing with someone who has been doing real proper science their entire life you're incredibly more likely to be dealing with an atheist than you would be talking to some random person on the street.

[Laura902]

13. it comes down to that in an

intellectual field one is always learning and thinking deeply and when you contemplate the existence of something imaginary that humans made up.......it becomes just that and nothing more.

[centristgrandpa]

14. the power of myth is too telling...regardless n/t

[caitxrawks]

15. if it makes you feel any better...

I plan on becoming a scientist one day, an anthropologist/archaeologist. I am a vehement atheist =) If I have to study amongst a bunch of religious folks I am going to be quite unhappy. I was actually looking forward to going to school with more like-minded individuals.